64 pages including b/w illustrations. For secondary school students. Includes bibliographical references. Our civilization has been called a ‘society for winners’. Sport is part of our society, and more often than not is seen in terms of winning and losing. This book tries to show that attitudes to sport are closely linked with our attitudes to life in general. Such features of modern life as violence, the taking of drugs, permissiveness, and racial conflict have their parallels in sport. There are also people who are seeking in sport a meaning to life, either as participants in organized sports or as individuals, searching for a wave or a mountain to climb. This book encourages us to look at sport in modern society; what its qualities are, what demands it makes and what it reveals about the people who are involved in it. Bill Mandle is a lecturer in History at the Australian National University and has been sport mad since childhood. He has taught in universities in England, New Zealand and Australia. He barracks for Carlton and Norwood (Australian Rules), St George and Barrow (Rugby League), Notts County (soccer), the Lions and Auckland (Rugby Union), England and South Australia (cricket) and takes an (inactive) interest in most other sports. Small inscription in page 2.